


Wanna Kiss the Sky (Better Learn How to Kneel)

by Rana Eros (ranalore)



Category: Dong Bang Shin Ki
Genre: Futurefic, M/M, Pre-debut, challenge: dbsk_flashfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-20
Updated: 2010-07-20
Packaged: 2017-10-10 22:21:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/104994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ranalore/pseuds/Rana%20Eros
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The destination is the journey.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wanna Kiss the Sky (Better Learn How to Kneel)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Keiko Kirin (sakana17)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sakana17/gifts).



> Inspired by the dbsk_flashfic community drabble challenge topic of "Freefall." Written for Keiko, who received it first and gave it her blessing. Title paraphrased from the mighty U2.

_Then_

Take a cold, dark bus shelter in a less savory section of Seoul. Insert one young man, hungry, shivering, exhausted from a day of training to be a star and performing hard labor to pay for the privilege, trying to sleep on the hard bench. Insert another young man, same description, approaching the shelter with the same plan. What follows is inevitable.

"Hey!" says the first young man when the second nearly sits on him. The second, named Yunho, jumps back up. Only a sealed lid saves him from spilling the small bowl of noodles that is today's meal.

"Sorry!" he says as he turns, then nearly jumps again, because he knows the first young man. "Uh, Jaejoong, right?"

Jaejoong stares at Yunho suspiciously, and it's definitely him. Those eyes are unmistakable. "Yeah?"

"It's Yunho."

Jaejoong squints, then blinks. "Oh! Yeah. Sorry, I'm terrible at names."

"That's all right." It occurs to Yunho maybe he shouldn't have said anything, should just have gone looking for another place to pass the night. He tries to be nonchalant. "So, you're taking the bus home too, huh?"

"The bus doesn't run this late." Jaejoong could be mean about it, but he just sounds matter of fact. He scoots along the bench and gestures at his side. "But you can sit and rest a bit, then maybe go find a taxi."

"Oh." Not quite sure what to do with Jaejoong's implicit admission, Yunho sits, then takes a breath. He is used to being mindful of his dignity, of family pride, but that pride isn't his to mind since he came here. Jaejoong's been honest, and that demands honesty in return. Yunho takes the plunge. "Um, I wasn't actually going to wait for the bus."

"Okay. You can still rest here. You probably won't find anything good this time of night, and two will make it warmer."

Two does make it warmer, and when Yunho shares his noodles, that makes it warmer still, though the bowl wasn't enough to fill even one growing boy's belly. They fill each other with words instead, with dreams of success, family acceptance, friends in the business, love. They huddle closer as they talk, Yunho sharing his jacket, Jaejoong sharing the blanket the shelter's previous tenant left behind, smelling strongly of soju. They'll each have to make use of SM Entertainment's washrooms before training tomorrow, but for now they're protecting their voices and developing dancers' bodies, and finding allies in a competitive field.

Take two ambitious young men who have thrown themselves to the winds of chance, buoyed by talent and determination, and now by camaraderie, a fierce and growing bond. This is not what either of them came to this city for, but already it's essential.

What follows is inevitable.

_Now_

Take a bright and sunny day outside a Seoul courthouse. A settlement has just been made, and with it a decision, irreversible. Insert a young man, confident, unflappable before the media crowding the courthouse steps. He answers no questions, just pushes through, and they make way for fear of being trampled. He hails a taxi, gives directions that make the driver raise his eyebrows, but this customer is good for the money, so he drives.

Even in mid-afternoon, the bus shelter looks dull and grungy. There are a few people milling around, waiting for the next bus. One of them is wearing a black beanie pulled down almost over his eyes, giant sunglasses, and a medical mask. Yunho knows him. After all this time, Jaejoong is only more unmistakable, only more inevitable.

Yunho walks up to Jaejoong, slouched in one corner of the shelter, keeping an eye on the people coming and going around him. "Excuse me, do you know what buses stop here?"

Peering out at the world between the top of a pair of shades and the bottom of a beanie is a trick Jaejoong's mastered. "You going somewhere?"

"Thinking about it."

"Anywhere in particular?"

Yunho shrugs, tries a smile. "Where are you going?"

"Japan, I think."

"You can't get there by bus."

Jaejoong pulls down his mask to return the smile. "No, you can't. You want a place you can reach by bus?"

"No," Yunho says, sighs really, given that Jaejoong's smile warms him the way it has since the last time they met here. "Japan sounds good."

"It'll sound _really_ good, now." Jaejoong releases his mask, which slides back into place and covers his smile, but he's holding his hand out to Yunho and saying, "Shall we find a taxi? That's how going to Japan starts."

Yunho reaches out to take that hand, to feel Jaejoong's skin against his again, at last. Then he pulls Jaejoong into a hug, and Jaejoong comes willingly, laughing behind his mask as Yunho says, "No, _this_ is how it starts."

What follows is inevitable. Every fall ends in landing, and the trajectory determines where.


End file.
